Dr. S. V. Gomathi continues to be an incredible Jolly Phonics advocate in India. Her research has contributed to these states adopting the use of Jolly Phonics as the methodology for teaching early reading and writing in English. Her research found that parents move their children out of government schools in search of private schools for better English instruction. The recent steps taken by many states shows they recognise the value of English instruction as they have turned to the Jolly Phonics programme to enhance the teaching of English in their schools.
Jolly Phonics has been adopted in the selective districts of Andhra Pradesh (Vizianagaram & Vishakapatnam districts), Tamil Nadu (Trichy, Kanchipuram, Dindigul, Villipuram, Madurai, Trichy, and Ranipet districts), Telangana (Sangareddy district), and Odisha (Ganjam, Khurdha, Keonjhar and Nayagarh districts).
This year the following states had implemented in selective districts:
Tamil Nadu: The ITK OSD, Mr. Elambahavath IAS, was very positive about rolling out the Jolly Phonics programme in the government primary schools and ITK centers run by the government as after school activity. This initiative was taken by the government of Tamil Nadu during the pandemic and has continued due to the improvement in children's reading and writing.
The Jolly Phonics training has been successfully completed in 4379 schools across six districts; Ranipet, Villipuram, Madurai, Trichy, Dindigul, and Kanchipuram. 5133 teachers recieved free training delivered by a dedicated team of ten trainers. In additon to this over 202,000 pupils recieived materials. ITK teachers and volunteers were so excited after attending the training programme they started making innovative crafts to help the children understand the Jolly Phonics concept easily.
To date Jolly Futures has reached 17 districts in Tamil Nadu. The state is willing to rollout to the remaining 21 districts. The discussions are on-going. The state is planning to reprint the pupil books with the generous licence from Jolly Learning Ltd.
Andhra Pradesh: In Vizianagaram district 19 trainers delivered training for 3,052 teachers in 32 blocks from 2472 schools. Vishakapatnam district 12 trainers trained 384 teachers in 7 blocks from 399 schools.
Director of SCERT Dr. Pratap Reddy was very happy about the training programme as he had received good feedback from the teachers about the Jolly Phonics. 22, 140 pupils have recieved Jolly Phonics pupil books.
This is the first year of implementation in Andhra Pradesh and the response has been very positive. There have been discussions with the state office to incorporate syntheitc phonics (Jolly Phonics) into their curriculum as well as curiosity for the progression to Jolly Grammar.
Telangana: The rollout was possible due to the efforts of the DEO of Sangareddy district, who was impressed with the results seen in Mahabubnagar district. 1020 schools recieved free materials and teacher training.
Odisha: Last but not least.... Jolly Phonics has been implemented in four districts; Ganjam, Khurdha, Keonjhar and Nayagarh districts in Odisha state. This has reached a staggering 6643 schools impacting 40, 252 pupils. The training was largely delivered online during the pandemic where over 3800 teachers were trained.
We extend a big thank you to all the Government officials who supported the implementation of the Jolly Phonics programme in their schools and made it a grand success.
The impact of the programme was observed by the state immediately after the training. Following the two days of training, teachers immediately began implementing Jolly Phonics. Government teachers and officials thanked Dr. Chris Jolly for the Jolly Futures programme which involved the donation of free materials to the schools and teacher training.
We take this opportunity to thank the IAS officers, Directors, COO, DEOs, BEOs and other officers in all the states who supported our team in implementing the programme.
